1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a brake caliper, a braking apparatus and a vehicle. The present invention may in particular relate to a brake caliper for applying a braking force to a brake disc of a vehicle.
2. Related Art
As is known in the art, many vehicle braking systems are required to provide two separate braking forces a service braking force and a park braking force. The service braking force is provided to slow the speed of the vehicle and bring it to a stop when required. The park braking force is required to keep the vehicle stationary when it is at rest e. g. when it is parked.
In order to provide a braking force acting towards each side of the brake disc (such that the brake pads grip the brake disc from both sides) it is known to use two basic types of caliper, moving (often referred to as sliding or floating) brake calipers or fixed brake calipers (often referred to as opposed piston). A moving caliper is arranged to move with respect to the brake disc whereby one or more piston and cylinder assemblies are located on one side of the caliper to directly apply braking force on one side of the brake disc while a similar force is applied to the other side of the brake disc via a reaction force resulting from the movement of the caliper. A fixed caliper on the other hand is known to provide improved performance over moving calipers by providing increased braking effort through use of one or more piston and cylinder assemblies (often referred to as opposed pistons) to directly apply a separate force to both sides of the brake disc.
The opposed pistons of an opposed piston caliper cannot however also be used to provide a parking brake, as a mechanism is required that maintains a braking force by direct mechanical means even when the service braking system is not active. Existing dual braking solutions involve the use of a separate caliper to provide a park brake where a fixed piston caliper is used to provide the service brake. In other known solutions, the two separate caliper types are combined into a single large caliper, with separate brake pads provided to